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Advertising
Tips ........................6
July 1999
This
week:
Working from
Home
Those special
offers
Quick Tip
Part 2 of the
interview with BZ Riger-Hull
More helpful
sites for your business
Your
Home Office
By Jennifer
Stewart
One of the great
things about the internet, is the way it has
enabled so many
people to work from home. There are many
advantages to
leading a SOHO existence (Sole Occupier Home
Office or Small
Office Home Office ... there are several
different names):
* the 30 second
commute - no more traffic jams
* more time with
your family
* the freedom of
being your own boss. (You have the freedom to
work any 80 hours
in the week you wish!!)
What work can
you do from home?
The easy answer is
virtually anything you can do well - with
"virtually"
being the operative word. These days,
telecommuting
has become
accepted practice in many large firms - with even
full-time staff
working from their own homes.
You can set up
your own business, based on what you were doing
for a boss or you
can establish a new business, based on an
offshoot of
something you were doing.
You can turn a
hobby or interest into a business - anything from
stamp collecting,
art, needlework, antique cars and furniture
making to public
speaking, poetry, music and meditation can
become a
successful online business.
Use your
professional skills in law, architecture,
engineering,
accountancy etc,
to establish yourself as a consultant, trainer
or to embark on
the speakers' trail.
What you need
to start
- Interest and
skill in your chosen area
- A half-way
decent PC
- A modem
- An internet
connection
- A good
printer
- A scanner
(optional but handy)
How to get
started
- Check out any
government requirements (local, state and
federal)
- Register a
business name
- Set up a
separate bank account
- Set up
merchant facilities so you can accept
credit card
payments on your
website
- Design (or
have designed) a website to reflect your
business
image
- Investigate
all ways to promote your new business -
on and
off line
The pitfalls of
working from home
It's easy to get
carried away with the glamorous vision of
yourself,
conducting your successful home based business.
However, there are
some inherent problems:
You can easily
spend too much time in your home office - there
are no clocks to
punch here - you'll often find yourself still
working long after
you would normally have gone home from a
"real
job".
You can just as
easily be seduced into the "manyana"
mind set
- the "Oh,
it's a lovely day, I'll just go for a stroll now
and
come back and
finish that later"... syndrome.
You may miss
having workmates and colleagues around (however
much you doubt it
at the moment!!) It can be lonely.
You need to
establish strict guidelines with the rest of your
family regarding
your office precinct and hours. You can't take
over the dining
room end of the family living room as your
office and then
grumble when the rest of the family engage in
their own
activities at the other end. Set up an exclusive
area
for your office.
Be firm with your
friends who may think that they can call
around for social
calls at any time of the day. Let them know
from the beginning
that you're "off limits" for social
visits
during working
hours.
Help
There are so many
people setting up home offices these days,
that you can
always find someone to discuss any problems with,
and you will find
unlimited help on the internet - just type in
a search for
whatever it is you need to know, and 9 times out
Quick
Tip
A quick tip to
improve your advertising headline - here's a good
way to get your readers' interest.
Ask them a
question. The aim of the advertising headline is
to engage the readers' interest - by asking them
a question, you're forcing them to respond. Even
if the answer is "no", they will have
made a mental connection with your headline and
will be more likely to read on.
Part 2
of the interview with BZ Riger-Hull
Q: What is one of
your favorite quotes?
A: "What lies behind us, and what lies
before us are tiny matters compared to what lies
within us." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Q: Name two to five of your favorite ezines.
A: On-line Publishers Moderated
Discussion List ISSN: 1099-9531 http://www.IdeaStation.com . Moderator: Shannon
Kinnard, shannon@ideastation.com. This is a friendly and
helpful ezine that has a lot of useful
information. Anyone thinking of starting a
newsletter should read the back issues and join
the list.
The E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything
for the Retailer; Issue #0107
November 6, 1998, George Matyjewicz, Moderator.
This is an excellent newsletter for people
retailing both on and off the net.
VirtualPROMOTE Gazette, Gazette@gs1.revnet.com . This is a very in-depth
look at marketing and trends on the Internet. The
newsletter is long and may not always have
information applicable to everyone’s
business interests, but by skimming it you can
select the items most useful to you.
SIMPLE PLEASURES NEWSLETTER, simple-pleasures-on@mail-list.com
. I
include this one even though I am the editor
& publisher, because of the tremendous
feedback I have received from my subscribers. The
content is always fresh and the articles provide
information and resources for the 9200+
subscribers. Here is a note I received yesterday.
"I just began receiving your newsletter
recently and I have visited your site. You seem
to have a wonderful, open attitude. That attitude
comes through in the newsletter and the web site.
Thank you so much. Wishing you wonderful
holidays. Your helpful hints for getting around
on the web are great! Thanks for sharing.
letinney"
"Women's Wisdom",
WomensWisdom@lists.webvalence.com. This newsletter offers
articles by autoresponder on a wide range of
subjects to help you focus and improve your life
on a personal and professional level.
Q: Was there ever a point that you thought about
throwing in the towel?
A: Being a small business owner is work, constant
work. I am always striving to improve my
knowledge in my business, and my personal skills.
Sometimes I get tired and a bit overwhelmed. I go
roller-blading with my German Shepherd or take a
few hours break outside and that puts everything
back in perspective.
Q: What have been the most important factors
contributing to your success?
A: I think having a passion for learning has been
very important. I am genuinely interested in my
customers, I enjoy adding a special touch for a
customer. Like making a handmade birthday or get
well card or accommodating special requests. Too
many businesses just look at customers for a way
to make their cash register ring. At
Charlotte’s Gardens making sure the customer
has enjoyed their visit and that they are pleased
with their purchase is the most important thing.
I think you must decide what success means to
you. For me helping people and making a positive
connection through business is very important.
Q: Could you share some words of wisdom for
Internet small business owners just starting out?
A Take a weekend and think about what it is you
would like to accomplish. Come up with a business
and a separate personal mission statement.
Develop a plan for where you would like to go in
the next 1, 3, & 5 years. Take a hard look at
where you are right now and what is most
important to you, what will help you get to where
you want to be. A business plan is a very useful
tool. I read an interesting analogy: if you were
boarding a plane in Los Angeles bound for New
York you would expect the pilot had a flight plan
and direction of how to reach the desired
destination. Not just wander around the sky
hoping to get to New York eventually. I smiled
when I heard this -- of course the need for such
a flight plan is obvious. No one would board the
plane without it. Then it hit me and the rest of
the people in the discussion that the same was
very true and just as important for your
business. Do a business plan for your business!
Know the financials and the marketing plan and
decide what is important to you, how you would
like to reach your goals and how you can learn
from and enjoy the journey as you head towards
those goals. The business plan is fluid and
should grow and change as you grow and change. It
is an essential tool to help you reach your
definition of success.
Q: What are some of the marketing mistakes or
fallacies that you learned the hard way?
A: It is imperative to have a clear well
thought-out marketing plan. That you commit to it
and you pay attention to what the successes and
failures can teach you. But most important is
that you recognize it is an investment in your
business and you must commit and stick with the
plan for a sustained period of time to allow it
to work. One ad here and there is just a waste of
money.
Q: Do you regularly engage in paid advertising,
or do you rely primarily on free marketing,
advertising exchanges, etc. to spread the word
about your products/services?
A: I use paid advertising, reciprocal
advertising, and word of mouth together as the
key factors of my marketing. I am in the process
of researching and developing an integrated
marketing plan for on-line and off-line. This
will help me set goals that I can track and let
me know where to continue my efforts.
Q: The Internet moves at a breakneck speed. What
are some of the means or modes of doing business
that you predict will change this year for the
Internet entrepreneur as a result of the shifting
(Internet) times?
A: I think the Internet is becoming more
mainstream, more people are comfortable using the
Internet for information, shopping, and fun. This
will help expand E-commerce and make it an
excellent medium for businesses. People will
expect to have individualized customer service,
and look to build relationships with the
businesses whether for products or services. I
think search engines will have to do a better job
making the sites that are on the net more
available to the people searching for them.
Customers have voiced great dissatisfaction that
they receive so many search results that have
nothing to do with what they are looking for (the
top 10-20). But when they take the time to look
deeper they find the sites they are interested
in.
You can visit BZ's site -- Charlotte's
Gardens -- at http://www.charlottesgardens.com
"Where
service is an art & shopping is a
pleasure." To subscribe to their free Simple
Pleasures newsletter on Gardening,
Cooking, and Enjoying Life, mailto:simple-pleasures-on@mail-list.com.
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to you by MediaPeak!, http://mediapeak.com, the source of
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